Balancing the Building Team: Gender Issues in the Building Professions. Report 284.

Court, Gill; Moralee, Janet

The following activities were conducted to identify strategies for improving the representation of women in professional, managerial, and technical occupations in the United Kingdom's building industry: literature review; mail questionnaire to which 468 (63.8%) of the 733 women contacted responded; group discussions with 32 women employed in the building industry, career advisers, building educators, and employers; and telephone interviews with seven key industry figures. The findings were synthesized into a plan calling for the following actions: promote public awareness of the role of women in building; support educational initiatives in building; promote general school/college liaison activities; offer work placements/work shadowing for girls/young women and teachers/career advisers; improve parents', teachers', and career advisers' knowledge of careers in building; make the business case for equal opportunities in the building industry; ensure that the principle of equal opportunity is followed in recruitment activities; help older women enter professional careers in building; train women in the skills needed to deal with difficult people; counter the negative image of women-only events; ensure that building employers take equal opportunities seriously; and help women combine work and family life. (Contains 29 tables/figures and 174 references. Appended are the following: study methodology, questionnaire, and 14 additional tables/figures.) (MN)